Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Monday:   

Lihue, Kauai –                    81  
Honolulu airport, Oahu –      79 
Kaneohe, Oahu –                82
Molokai airport –                 81
Kahului airport, Maui –        86   (Record high temperature on this date – 88F 1953, 1980) 
Kona airport –                    83 
Hilo airport, Hawaii –          82   

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops…as of 5pm Monday evening:

Kailua-kona – 80
Molokai airport – 75

Haleakala Crater –  45 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea –         39 (near 13,800 feet on the Big Island)

Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live web cam on the summit of near 13,800 foot Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. This web cam is available during the daylight hours here in the islands…and when there’s a big moon shining down during the night at times. Plus, during the nights you will be able to see stars, and the sunrise and sunset too…depending upon weather conditions. Here's the Haleakala Crater webcam on Maui…which is working only sometimes lately.

 Aloha Paragraphs

  http://travelphotos.everything-everywhere.com/photos/481248723_XATHn-1000x1000.jpg
  South to southwest winds, locally gusty –
  showers locally…especially on the leeward sides –
variable high clouds – volcanic haze locally

Oheo Gulch…east Maui

As this weather map shows numerous low pressure systems to the north through northwest, along with their associated cold fronts.  The location of these low pressure systems, and a weak ridge of high pressure to the south of the state is resulting in localized gusty south and southwest Kona winds.

The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph), along with directions Monday evening:

31                    Lihue, Kauai – SW
31                    Wheeler AFB, Oahu – S
27                 Molokai – SE
20                 Kahoolawe – SE 
29                 Kahului, Maui – SW
15                 Lanai – SE 
20                 South Point, Big Island – ENE

We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean Monday evening.  Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we see variable clouds, especially of the high and middle level varieties over and around the state…with embedded heavy showers in some places to the west through north of Kauai. We can use this looping satellite image to see lots of clouds heading our way from the northwest and west, including a cold front that has some thunderstorms embedded in it. Checking out this looping radar image we see light to moderately heavy showers coming up from the southwest, some of which are impacting the islands.

Here are the 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Monday evening:

1.52               Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.57               Honolulu airport, Oahu
0.03               Molokai
0.00               Lanai
0.00               Kahoolawe
0.15               Puu Kukui, Maui
5.82                 Kealakomo, Big Island

Sunset Commentary:   The latest weather map shows lots of low pressure systems located to the north and northwest of Hawaii Monday evening. At the same time, a cold front associated with one of these low pressure cells remains stalled to the northwest of Kauai.  Our local winds, prompted by the relatively close proximity of this front, and a high pressure ridge to our south…will continue to be locally gusty, coming in generally from the south through southwest through mid-week. The trade winds will finally return around Thursday into the upcoming weekend.

The cold front to our northwest has parked itself to our northwest for another day or two. This stalled frontal boundary will remain close enough however, that our kona winds will pick up tropical moisture at times locally, and move it over the state, which will provide shower activity here and there…most notably along our south and west facing leeward coasts and slopes. There will be off and on passing showers through perhaps Wednesday, which will be beneficial to our currently dry leeward sides, some of which may become quite generous…as has been the case in the Puna District on the Big Island lately. As we move into the second half of the week, the trade winds will return with just a few showers into the weekend.

Here in Kula, Maui at around 5pm HST, it was dry with high and middle level clouds, and a warm air temperature of 70.7F degrees.  As mentioned above, the cold front to our northwest isn't expected to come into the state. It will however continue to cause our local winds to come up from the deeper tropics, which will tap into moisture at times, and bring showers…especially to our leeward sides of the island chain. We will see more of that volcanic haze (vog) coming up over the islands from the Big Island vents too, at least in places. We'll have to wait for the trade winds to return around Thursday, which will ventilate our locally hazy skies then. ~~~ Looking out the windows of my weather tower this evening, I see partly cloudy skies, with streaks of high cirrus clouds too. These high clouds should provide a colorful sunset, and then again around sunrise in the morning as well. This looping radar image shows where our localized showers are falling. The southeast coast and slopes of the Big Island have been drenched during the last 24 hours or so, with the latest rainfall total at Pahoa showing a generous 2.40" total, although the 6.15" accumulation at Kealakomo was by far the most impressive anywhere in the state! Rainfall over the state in this kind of weather pattern will be hit and miss, leaving some areas of the state, especially the north and east windward coasts and slopes, completely dry. ~~~ Finally, I'm beginning to see some volcanic haze (vog) in our local skies now, although it isn't heavy yet, lets hope it doesn't get that way. By the way, I drove up to the 7,000 foot elevation of the Haleakala Crater today. It was so beautiful up there, with the high clouds above, and the lower clouds scooting along in the kona breezes along the slopes. I parked my car and hiked up this narrow stream bed for about a mile, just to get away from cars and people. I had a great nature experience all by myself, and was amazed that I could still do some texting up there, and send a few pictures of this pond of water that I found. I sat there quietly and ate my apple, and very much enjoyed communing with the great outdoors! I plan on going up the mountain much more now that I have more free time, having moved into the semi-retired phase of my life. As I was driving down, at around the 5500 foot level, I parked my car and grabbed my skateboard out of the trunk. I haven't done any of that very fun activity in quite some time. It felt wonderful to be up there skating down this one long stretch of road, then walking back up. I just stopped skating and pulled over and waited to continue, when cars were coming up or down. ~~~ I'll be back with another new weather narrative early Tuesday morning, I hope you have a great Monday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.